Passenger cars and vans are used to transport passengers and cargo. Passenger seats in vehicles tend to limit the cargo carrying capacity of the vehicle. Minivans and sport utility vehicles can be placed in various configurations with passenger seats being adapted to be converted from a passenger seat to a cargo carrying position. Generally, the vehicle seat back folds down over the lower seat. While this creates additional cargo carrying capacity, the folded seat back may be 12 to 18 inches above the floor of the passenger/cargo compartment.
Another approach to maximizing cargo carrying capacity in a minivan or sport utility vehicle is by providing detachable seats that can be removed from the vehicle leaving a clear, unobstructed cargo floor of maximum height. Conventional seats are heavy and unwieldy. Also, after the seats are removed from the vehicle, they must be stored outside of the vehicle typically in a crowded garage.
Yet another approach is to provide seats that are mounted to the floor of a vehicle on rollers that are received in tracks secured to the floor of the vehicle. In this approach, the seats may be either rolled forwardly or rearwardly in the vehicle so that they are adjacent to one another when folded down. Also, one or more rows of seats may be removed. These approaches suffer from some of the same disadvantages that were previously described.
The present invention is directed to solving the above problems.